Batman up a Crane

I was moved to tears this week, seriously flooded. It was worse than watching Paris Texas. OK I know I'm a bit of a easy target when it comes to that sort of thing not having had a stereotypical straightforward relationship history [who has??]and not having seen my younger daughter for 2 years and feeling like a failure waiting to fail because of that...or just feeling numb the rest of the time. In this case the emotional catalyst was a Lancashire man dressed as Batman who occupied a Crane some 300 feet above Liverpool City Centre from last Saturday 1st Aug [I think], eventually coming down on the following Wednesday. I stood each day and waved and watched him with the lunchtime office mob, the shopkeepers, the TV crew, the demonstrators,the skater kids and a few others including Robin. I witnessed his distress and his genuine desperation as the assembled gaggle of profession negotiators did their utmost to bring it to an end. To their credit they handled the situation with sensitivity. You could hear quite clearly the dialogue between them and Batman upset at not being able to see his children, he'd not seen his kids for 8 weeks, something he told them repeatedly, and each time I heard him I felt a huge wave of sadness surging through me, then came the tears. This was a truly inspiring protest and my heart goes out to the man up the crane and the thousands of others like him, victims of an absurdly antiquated one sided legal system that is long due reform. He hadn't seen his children for eight weeks. I have since joined fathers for justice, and not before time. Do check them out do please, below is their mission statement taken from the website. www.fathers-4-justice.org/ Fathers 4 Justice (F4J) is a new civil rights movement campaigning for a child's right to see both parents and grandparents. The group comprises Fathers, Mothers, Grandparents, Teachers, Doctors, Company Directors, Policemen, Barristers – a complete cross section of society – all whom believe that Britain is needlessly creating a nation of children without parents and parents without children. Fathers 4 Justice have adopted a twin track strategy based around publicity and press. Raising awareness through publicity 'making the injustice visible' and mobilising a 'dads army' – applying pressure to the system and MP's to bring around meaningful change & enforce the will of Parliament. All children, their parents and grandparents have inalienable rights to enjoy a meaningful, loving relationship with each other woven into our social fabric for over 6,000 years. Parliament's express intention in the 1989 Children's Act was exactly this yet the child's best interest principle has now effectively become the mothers best interest. A recent judgement by Lord Justice Thorpe severing contact between a child and her father gave the green light to recalcitrant mothers that they could veto contact between children and their fathers if this made them 'anxious or depressed.' So why is the Lord Chancellor's Department failing to uphold the will of Parliament? Why is it failing families? Why is it failing our children and grandchildren? "When the law promotes injustice, it will fall." BOB GELDOF - JUNE 2002 Meanwhile we're off to Edinburgh on Tuesday, gig details are on the site, we're onstage at 10.30, there's no Suicide Dad in the new set, but expect a new Batman influenced VP song in the near future, VPxx